I don't know John, I never smelled him! Seriously, they stitched it back on at King's College Hospital.

Back in the 80's we received word that my sister Rose in Jamaica was unwell. She was speaking with a man's voice and was coughing up stones. Everyone thought she had been possessed by an evil spirit. My Dad flew over there and secured the services of a Catholic priest. They went over to Rose's house and the priest burned incense throughout and said prayers over Rose for hours. The priest emerged from the house holding Rose by the hand. She was very tired and bemused but was back to her old self again.

These kind of beliefs can be found all over Africa and jamaicans are africans descendants.Between there are different kind of "magic", the white one that protects and the black one that can hurt or kill.

Mark T wrote:To be fair I think there are many things that happen in our world that cannot be accounted for in purely materialistic/rationalistic terms - stuff that we call supernatural for want of a better term.

And an African will take this very seriously, he won't let his fallen hairs at the barber because someone could use them to cast a spell, he also takes mystical bathes ...

Ranking Glasses wrote:I heard that some of my ancestors in Jamaica used to have a small water-filled trench outside their front doors. The reason was that it would stop evil spirits entering their houses.

Yes, typical ... like spreading some water on the ground and stride over it when you're going abroad.

As Bob would sing, "Cast away the evil spell, throw some water in the well "

From Santeria , Voodoo To Obeah , those Islands do have a lot of Superstitions.Many of the reggae legends have spoke about Duppy's & such , so i guess it's part of reggae history as well

exactly! in haiti it's the official religion as far as i know. in cuba, whether the catholics nor the communist/atheist ruler ever had the slightest chance to stop or forbid old african beliefs. funny thing is that in cuba today's society is mostly follower of african religion - whether they are white, black or something in between. evil or good is a completely different issue when it comes to those old african religions. that is up to what one chooses. that said - if anything of this is true or not is the same in whatever religon or cult exists in the world.

capullo wrote:evil or good is a completely different issue when it comes to those old african religions

I slightly disagree. It's different but not completely different. Santeros are usually friendly and non-violent. The only thing they want from you is your dollars and pounds ) but they are definitely NOT the ones who rob/steal from tourists )))